Email basis for Ian Bell interview in GameNavigator#10 (Russian games mag) Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 10:48 +0100 (BST) From: iancgbell@clara.co.uk (Ian Bell) Subject: Re[3]: Elite questions To: navigat@aha.ru CC: iancgbell@clara.co.uk > I also followed your advise and read FAQ, and if you do not mind, we > will use some questions/answers from it too. Is it ok? Fine. > So I'll ask just few additional questions. > > 1. Where did you get the idea behind Elite? Was it completely yours (and > David's) or people from BBC Microcomputer just ordered it to be done > in such and such way? Completly ours. We designed the game and then took a largely finished version to the publishers. > 2. Well, how did you managed to insert this awful amount of data, > engine, music, all those galaxies in just one small game? What is the > programming for you - a kind of art? The data for the galaxies was "randomly" generated as required in a repeatable manner. The engine was tightly coded. There was no music in the early versions. Programming is an art, but creativity has to be matched with diligent logic. > 3. Before I became Editor-in Chief I spent 18 years in the Space > Forces of Russia, I took part in many deep space projects (VEGA, > Venera, Mars, Phobos, etc.). And when I played Elite I could not > understand why you implemented such controls. Player can control craft > on vertical and can rotate it. Why you excluded the horizontal > control? I wanted to incorporate rotation about the front-back axis ("roll") since this is gives the most dramatic on-screen motion and was vital for a 2001-style docking sequence. I wanted a slow airplane dogfight feel rather than realistic inertial high velocity space combat so it made sense to allow rotation about left-right axis dive/climb ("pitch"). I did experiment with rotation about up-down axis ("yaw") but this tended towards the traditional "sliding gunsight" feel of contemporary " games. Allowing all three rotations had significant disadvantages: The enemy ships (and player) tended to fly in less dramatic ways ; More control keys ; Complication and slowing down of the dust particle routines. > 4. Can you tell us if PC port of Elite has the same gameplay as > original one for the BBS? The original ones played differently > > 5. What do you think about the tactics in Elite, I mean during the > battles, when you fight alone against several ships. I usually fled > away and picked one by one with my back laser. I do not think tactics > changed much in modern space sims. Is it so from your point of view > too? That is the best tactic because your ship is more powerful than the enemy ships and (uniquely) has a rear laser. Like most space games, Elite is unrealistic in that the player has by far the toughest ship around. I've not played any other space simms so can't comment on their tactics. > 6. You mentioned in the GamesDomain interview that you are working on > the new game. I do not know what was the date of the interviev and how > much time passed now. May be you can tell us something about your > current work? No news at the moment. Interested folk should post a webwatch on www.ibell.co.uk/news.gamenews.htm > I also would like to thank you on the behalf of russian gaming people > for the > enormous pleasure we all took from playing Elite. I am sure they will > be happy not only read your words but to see your pic too :) . > Please send us one if you do not mind. See www.ibell.co.uk/him/icgb.jpg and www.ibell.co.uk/ibhead.jpg ian b - www.ibell.co.uk